Gitmo: 4 Million per prisoner for each year: Republicans insist it stay open.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/30/guantanamo-bay_n_7182186.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000013

The annual price tag for holding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay is nearing $4 million per inmate, but Congress advanced a defense bill early Thursday that again prevents President Barack Obama from closing the notorious facility.
In the early morning during work on the massive National Defense Authorization Act of 2016, the House Armed Services Committee voted down an amendment that would have freed the White House to begin dispersing the prisoners held at Gitmo, about half of whom have been deemed by the military and intelligence community to pose no threat to the United States.
The amendment had been offered by the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), who has tried for years to close the expensive facility, estimated to be the costliest in the world.

“There are better places to hold people who need to be held in Guantanamo in a far more cost-effective manner, and I still believe it is in the best national security interests of our country to close Guantanamo,” Smith said.

UFO's seen by Astronauts. Astronauts are talking out about what they have seen.

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/03/05/international-space-station-commander-opens-up-about-his-ufo-sighting-in-space/

International Space Station Commander Opens Up About His UFO Sighting In Space

Retriever Towing hates me!! I said some business practices are illegal and send the tow pictures.

Yesterday, Scott at Retriever Towing said he would not communicate with me again.

I wrote that he is breaking state law by not communicating.  I then explained that OR State Law says any person can ask another person (or not) to help them in filing and sorting through a grievance with a company or person.  Grandma M happened to choose me.

I then wrote his company is breaking OR State Law by not sending the pictures of the tow.  The pictures are required by law and Grandma M payed for those pictures when she got her car.  They then sent another form which says HOLD HARMLESS. 

I told Scott at Retriever Towing that the HOLD RETRIEVER TOWING HARMLESS is ILLEGAL IN THE STATE OF OREGON.  As part of the 2007 law they cannot do this.  It is illegal.  (I have an advisor who read and knows the law and fills me in on such stuff.)

I have many questions about the Annoyance Fee which he will not talk about but I will bring up in every forum possible until we get a resolution.  Even then, We are considering releasing our information to media.  How Tow Truck Companies work in Portland, OR is a significant issue.  The Grandma M tow cost almost $400.00 and when I was in the office to be escorted out by the Police last week, they were getting many calls for tows.

I will send one more email asking him to please send the pictures, they were bought and paid for.  Grandma M put my email down in the complaint sheet as well as my phone number and it is legal to send the photos to where ever she chooses.

I also told them that ANYONE WHO SIGNED THE Hold Harmless letter is not bound by the letter because it is illegal in Oregon because of the 2007 Oregon Law.  I went on to say that anyone who signed that letter needs to get a letter from Retriever saying that the HOLD HARMLESS is illegal in Oregon and they have the legal right to seek redress to any towing issue.

I am not making many friends at Retriever Towing in Portland, OR.

Agent Orange: A Horrible Legacy left in Vietnam. 40 years ago, the Vietnam war ended.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/30519-agent-orange-terrible-legacy-of-the-vietnam-war?utm_content=buffer2c4a5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Mai Giang Vu was exposed to Agent Orange while serving in the Army of South Vietnam from 1968 to 1974. He carried barrels of chemicals to spray in the jungle. His sons were born in 1974 and 1975. They were unable to walk or function normally. Their limbs gradually "curled up" and they could only crawl. By age 18, they were bedridden. One died at age 23; the other at age 25.
Nga Tran is a French Vietnamese woman who worked in Vietnam as a war correspondent. She was there when the US military began spraying chemical defoliants. A big cloud of the agent enveloped her. Shortly after her daughter was born, the child's skin began shedding. She could not bear to have physical contact with anyone. The child never grew. She remained 6.6 pounds - her birth weight - until her death at the age of 17 months. Tran's second daughter suffers from alpha thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder rarely seen in Asia. Tran saw a woman who gave birth to a "ball" with no human form. Many children are born without brains; others make inhuman sounds, Tran said. There are victims who have never stood up. They creep and barely lift their heads.

Baltimore Report disputes leaked reports re: Freddy Gray death by broken back

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/04/30/baltimore-reporter-disputes-details-of-leaked-p/203482

Baltimore Reporter Disputes Details Of Leaked Police Department Report On Freddie Gray's Arrest 

 

very well done.  Worth reading and watching.

Senate bill blocks scientific evidence being used in EPA decisions. Crazy is now normal for Republicans

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/29/3652747/epa-secret-science-bill-passes-senate-committee/

The purpose of the Secret Science bill, according to its House sponsor Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), is to stop “hidden and flawed” science from being the basis of EPA regulations. However, many scientific organizations have disagreed with this characterization.

For example, approximately 50 scientific societies and universities said the bill would prohibit the EPA from using many large-scale public health studies, because their data “could not realistically be reproduced.” In addition, many studies use private medical data, trade secrets, and industry data that cannot legally be made public.
“The legislation may sound reasonable, but it’s actually a cynical attack on the EPA’s ability to do its job,” said Andrew Rosenberg, the director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a statement. “This bill would make it impossible for the EPA to use many health studies, since they often contain private patient information that can’t and shouldn’t be revealed.”

Baltimore Protests: What America Does Not Understand

http://www.alternet.org/united-states-amnesia-what-white-america-doesnt-understand-about-baltimore-protests?akid=13050.294211.VJHsoB&rd=1&src=newsletter1035618&t=1

Baltimore’s young people responded to the police theft of Freddie Gray’s life with protests that eventually grew into a spasm of violence. While the direct motivator, Gray’s death is not the only direct cause of the uprising. The protests and violent exhalations by Baltimore’s black youth (and others) are the result of a long pattern of police abuse, harassment and violence toward that city’s African-American community in the context of systemic class inequality, custodial citizenship and mass incarceration.
The causes of black urban unrest in the United States are not “unknown unknowns.” Rather, they were described in great and compelling detail by the 1968 Kerner Commission, which was tasked by President Johnson with determining the causes of the urban riots during the 1960s.
The reasons young people in Baltimore and other parts of the United States have been moved to street protests in response to police violence are only mysteries to those American policymakers and members of the public who choose to live in a state of denial.

However, much more important questions will not be asked by pundits and politicians.
How are America’s police pathological in their violence, racism and brutal killings of black people?
Are America’s police deranged in how they imagine unarmed black and brown people as some type of imminent threat to be dispatched with due haste and extreme prejudice?
Is America’s police culture sick and pathological in how citizens have been tortured to death, sexually assaulted and otherwise violated and abused by police officers?
If there are only a few bad apples in America’s police departments, why don’t the good cops throw them out en masse?
Are America’s police more like a street gang than public servants?
It is easy for the mainstream news media to opine and lecture about “pathological” black communities that are supposedly plagued by “bad culture.” It is far more difficult to talk about America’s broken police and its culture of violence and disrespect toward non-whites and poor people that led to the killing of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, and so many other black men and women across the United States of America.

A class in Climate Denial - He talks about week 1

http://www.alternet.org/environment/im-going-climate-denial-school-my-first-week-inside-science-anti-science?akid=13050.294211.VJHsoB&rd=1&src=newsletter1035618&t=17

Free.  6 weeks. 

Tuesday, for me and some ten thousand classmates, was the first day of climate denial school.
Or, should I say, anti-climate denial school. We’d all signed up for Denial101x, a new, six-week MOOC (that’s “massive open online course,” for all you education luddites) aimed at making sense of this whole phenomenon — and at giving us the tools to fight deniers, so that we can all get on with fighting climate change itself.
Our professor is John Cook, the Climate Communication Fellow for the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland and the founder of Skeptical Science, which over the past two years has been an invaluable resources for me, a newbie debunker of deniers.

FOX is an embarrassment as Rep Elijah Cummins helps enforce the curfew

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/rep-elijah-cummings-blows-off-fox-news-to-keep-baltimore-protesters-from-breaking-curfew/

A Maryland Democrat ignored Sean Hannity to help clear the streets of protesters at curfew in Baltimore.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) spoke briefly with Fox News reporter Leland Vittert on Wednesday night about the death of Freddie Gray, reported Mediaite.
Hannity, back in the studio, then asked to speak with the congressman, who blew off the request and picked up a bullhorn to urge protesters to go home.
The Fox News host managed to get one question to Cummings through Vittert, who followed the lawmaker.
Hannity asked if the president had rushed to judgment in the case, and Cummings said he did not believe so.
Cummings told Fox News that he and Maryland’s congressional delegation had spoken with the Department of Justice and were confident the case would be fully investigated.
“The president lashed out at police?” Hannity asked, back in the studio. “The president is sending two White House representatives.”

Jon Stewart ttalks to Judith Miller re: She helped start the Iraq War

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/jon-stewart-shows-how-journalism-is-done-by-destroying-judith-millers-bad-reporting-blame-shifting/

Earlier this week Neil Lewis — formerly of the New York Times —  cast a jaundiced eye on what he called Judith Miller’s “rehab  tour,” as she hit the talking head shows/media sit-downs promoting her “mistakes-were-made-but-not-just-by-me” memoir, “The Story: A Reporter’s Journey.”
Miller, who is notable for being the Bush Administration’s go-to cheerleader for the war in Iraq, is trying to rehabilitate her well-deserved image as a willing dupe who funneled Bush Administration propaganda onto the front page of the New York Times in return for access and flattery.
While admitting that he and Miller have a lot of bad blood between them, Lewis pointed out that the timing of Miller’s mea culpa – very light on the “me” — makes use of the passage of time and disinterested interviewers extending professional courtesy to a fellow journalist to help her promote her book. This allows Miller to muddy the water and spread the blame, saying “we all screwed up.”
“She has made sporadic efforts before to defend her reporting. But now she’s employing an important element in the modern method of obfuscation and confusion. Waiting several years after the events, she tries to take advantage of fading memories, especially involving detailed and complicated matters,” Lewis wrote. “Time and complexity are the best friends of a determined distorter of events.”

NY Times: Conservative Economics and Income Inequality are Literally Killing Us

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/29/1381134/-NYTimes-Conservative-Economics-and-Income-Inequality-Are-Literally-Killing-Us?detail=facebook_sf

Thirty-five years ago, babies born in the U.S. had an infant mortality rate equal to Germany. Today, American babies die at twice the rate of those in Germany.
Thirty-five years ago, the U.S. ranked 13th in life expectancy for girls among the 34 recognized industrial societies. Today we are ranked 29th out of those same 34 countries.
We have the highest teenage birth rate among the industrialized world.
One out of every four children in this country lives with a single parent, the highest rate by far in the industrialized world.
Our incarceration rate is triple what it was four decades ago, with an incarceration rate five times that of other wealthy democracies.
Economists from the University of Chicago, MIT and the University of Southern California conducted research to find out why our children die at a rate exponentially higher than European kids. Their conclusion? Staggering rates of income disparity, all stemming directly from the 1980's, the Era of Ronald Reagan and the beginning of the resurgence of the conservative movement.

Went to the Portland City Council Meeting re: Predatory Towing

I went to the Portland City Council Meeting and learned a lot about the laws of predatory towing. The speaker on the topic Sean Cruz, spent time with me going over the Grandma M case and he said Retriever Towing is in violation of the law in at least one and possibly in multiple areas. He is willing to review the information and guide Grandma M and I through the process. He said Grandma M will get her (excessive) tow fee back as well she appears to qualify for extra money because of the blatant disregard for the statutes under which towing companies operate.

We are talking about teaming up to change some laws.  The mayor said the Predatory Towing will be considered.  I learned a lot this morning.

Private Prison System costs you big, big money.

http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2015/04/prison-pay-to-play-system-is-costing-you-big-big-money-execs-making-millions/

Prison systems should not be money makers.  That only encourages throwing innocent or marginally guilty people in jail.

Business is booming if you’re in the prison business. Since 1980, the private prison industry has grown an astounding 1700 percent, making some business executives exceedingly wealthy along the way.
It’s also destroyed families and cost taxpayers their livelihoods.
Watch this segment with Thom Hartmann which explores what can be done to turn the tide of the growing prison menace in the United States.

Jon Stewart on the Baltimore Rights and Wolf Blitzer

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/jon-stewart-slams-wolf-blitzers-shock-over-baltimore-ferguson-was-just-a-few-months-ago/

Hours after being called out by a Ferguson activist, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was the butt of the joke on the Daily Show on Tuesday night, as Jon Stewart hammered him for acting shocked about the unrest in Baltimore.
“Elvis leading a herd of orthodox Jewish unicorns through a city street — that would be hard to believe,” Stewart said. “This sh*t happens all the time. Ferguson was just a few months ago, and you were talking about it.”

He created 11.2 Million jobs in 58 months and brought down the deficit by 900 Billion: Reagan?

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2015/04/tricked-you.html

Tricked you.

I think this needs to be spread far and wide.

If any Republican president had accomplished even a fraction of what Obama has accomplished the conservatives would never shut up about it.

Dominant White Response to Baltimore Shows Why Black Residents are Justified in their Anger.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/28/1380944/-The-Dominant-White-Response-to-Baltimore-Shows-Why-Black-Residents-are-Justified-in-their-Anger?detail=facebook_sf

The Dominant White Response to Baltimore Shows Why Black Residents are Justified in their Anger

Imagine for a moment that man's neck was almost severed, nearly clean cut in the most painful way possible, while in the custody of the people charged with the duty of protecting and serving. Imagine that man died, alone, in a prison cell, while his cries for help were blatantly ignored. Now imagine that in the wake of that tragedy, a government had been infantile in its ability to explain even the basic details of what happened. That's the revolting reality in Baltimore. And through it all, the dominant white response was muted. From different reaches of the Internet, prominent civil rights leaders weighed in on the travesty, offering perspectives on another data point in an ever-growing body of evidence that the police state is still being mobilized against black Americans. And sure, the death of Freddie Gray received some national media attention.
But it wasn't the concern of the average guy who looks like me. White Americans are immune these problems, isolated from the realities of police brutality and oppression. Severed spines are a problem in the abstract, but certainly not something to get all bothered about. For some of us, the Freddie Gray travesty was another opportunity to reflect on the moral failings of the afflicted, noting that if Freddie had been a law-abiding choir boy, he wouldn't have found himself in the crunching grasp of Baltimore's police force. For others, it was an opportunity to remind the world that not all cops are bad, an impulse that's certainly correct, even if ill-timed.
But the brutal death of Freddie Gray, an example of police brutality that could have reminded us all of the dangers faced by inner-city black men on a daily basis? Well, that's just not occasion enough for us to offer an opinion.

To Wolf Blitzer: YOU ARE SUGGESTING THAT BROKEN WINDOWS ARE WORSE THAN BROKEN SPINES?

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/activist-smacks-down-wolf-blitzer-you-are-suggesting-broken-windows-are-worse-than-broken-spines/

NN host Wolf Blitzer seemed determined make the focus of his Tuesday interview with Deray McKesson about the amount of trouble protesters had caused in Baltimore, but the community organizer managed to turn the tables on the veteran journalist.
“You want peaceful protests, right?” Blitzer began his interview by asking McKesson.
“Yes,” McKesson replied, after being momentarily taken aback by obvious nature of the question. “Remember, the people that have been violent since August have been the police. When you think about the 300 people that have been killed this year alone. Like that is violence.”
McKesson agreed that the property damage in Baltimore on Monday night had been unfortunate, but he urged Blitzer to remember that there had been “many days of peaceful protests here in Baltimore City and places all around the country.”
“But at least 15 police officers have been hurt, 200 arrests, 144 vehicle fires — these are statistics,” Blitzer countered, robotically reading a police press release. “There’s no excuse for that kind of violence, right?”
“Yeah, and there’s no excuse for the seven people that the Baltimore City Police Department has killed in the last year either, right?” McKesson shot back.

Baltimore Riots: Mom slaps son - WHAT THE MEDIA MISSED about that incident.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/04/28/social-media-praised-baltimore-mom-who-slapped-rioting-son-heres-what-they-got-wrong-video/

Their rationale is that hey, at least his mother is calling him out for what he is.
However, they are wrong. They are seeing anger on the part of this mother, when what they should really be seeing is fear. She is afraid. She may be slapping her son because the riots he had participated in are occurring because yet another unarmed black man has been killed by police. She has probably, like all black parents, talked to her son about how one wrong move can get you killed by the cops, and about how frightening white people find people of color. She has probably talked to him about the way he dresses, about not walking in certain neighborhoods, about not making eye contact with unknown white people, and especially white cops.

NRA keeps quiet about children being killed with guns

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/09/deaths-of-children-are-the-most-devastating-effect-of-our-gun-culture-the-nra-has-no-idea-what-to-say-about-them/

Gun deaths involving children are devastating. The NRA has no idea what to say about them.

Accidental shootings by kids contradict many of the NRA's best talking points

Towing Laws in Oregon, Retriever Towing, PDX, OR is a Predatory Tow Co.

http://www.doj.state.or.us/consumer/pages/towing.aspx

I will be spending the next few days going through this because of the Grandma M Predatory Towing Situation.

I have had 2 emails from the tow company and I have sent them 3.  I am in the discovery phase of getting information about the case at this time.

11 Stupid Reason White People Have Rioted

http://www.alternet.org/11-stupid-reasons-white-people-have-rioted

There is a long and storied history of behaviors being depicted through the prism of people's skin color. During Hurricane Katrina, as people of all races desperately searched for provisions, the media reported that white people “found” food, while black people “looted.”

Inspired by a list compiled by political blogger @red3blog in a series of tweets, here’s a more in-depth look at the 11 most ridiculous reasons white people have rioted.
11) Denver 1998: Denver Broncos Win Super Bowl.
9) Vancouver 2011. Vancouver Canucks Lose the Stanley Cup.

5) Pennsylvania 2011. Penn State Fires Coach Joe Paterno for Looking the Other Way While His Assistant Coach Sexually Molested Children.
4) Knoxville, Tennessee, 2010. Lane Kiffin Decides He Doesn't Want to Coach for the University of Tennessee Anymore.
1) Keene, New Hampshire, 2014. Pumpkin Festival Takes Place. No Really... a Pumpkin Festival.
The much-mocked Keene State College riots this year are not just evidence that white people can and will riot without the slightest provocation, they are a troubling look at the very different ways our society views behaviors based on skin color. In October, Keene State held its annual Pumpkin Festival, a seemingly innocuous annual gathering that somehow devolved into drunken (white) students turning over cars, throwing bottles at the cops, stealing street signs, starting fires, shouting obscenities at the police, and somehow, surviving without a single person being so much as tased. Ironically, despite early unrest, peaceful protests in Ferguson had been ongoing for weeks, but conservative media, for some reason, labeled those activists criminals. Twitter couldn’t help noticing the difference, resulting in tweets that wondered "Why are they tearing up their own community?" and suggesting “White people in New Hampshire really need to do some self-reflection and regulate their animal impulses in the wake of #keenepumpkinfest.”
 

Why Blacks running from Police is totally logical and so very common, even if getting shot is possible.

http://www.alternet.org/why-blacks-running-cops-entirely-logical-and-so-common

It’s a fact in America that in these poorer communities—and in largely African-American neighborhoods like the one I was in—you’re much more likely encounter a police officer. The level of police presence is  just off the charts compared to similar white neighborhoods. So you have the increased likelihood of interaction, and the high probability that that interaction will not be good. Even if there’s no arrest, there can still be a detention, a search, whatever, and who knows how long that’s going to last? It means you won’t be home to dinner tonight. Maybe not even tomorrow. It makes you not only fearful of police contact, but also of the places where the police might go to find you—your girlfriend’s house, your kid’s school, your place of employment.

Shep Smith straightns out FOX on the Baltimore Riots. Surprising and needed.

http://mediamatters.org/video/2015/04/27/shep-smith-rebukes-fox-hosts-insistence-on-blam/203440

Shep Smith Rebukes Fox Hosts' Insistence On Blaming Civil Rights Community And Parents For Baltimore Violence

More Nails in the Coffin of the Middle Class: 5 things to make things worse for us

http://www.alternet.org/economy/more-nails-coffin-middle-class-5-things-could-make-life-even-worse-most-americans

More Nails in the Coffin of the Middle Class: 5 Things That Could Make Life Even Worse for Most Americans

Unless the U.S. changes course economically, the worst may be yet to come.

 

1. The Trans Pacific Partnership, a.k.a. “NAFTA on Steroids”: The “Giant Sucking Sound” Could Get Much Louder

3. Union-Busting Continues to Accelerate

4. The Privatization of Medicare and Social Security: A Recipe for Disaster

   

Baltimore Riots after Funeral For Black Man killed while in a police encounter that broke his back

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2015/04/baltimore-riots-happening-now.html

There is a lot of pent up anger in minority communities now.

Courtesy of MSN: 

Seven Baltimore police officers were injured on Monday as rioters threw bricks, broke windows, looted businesses and burned patrol cars in violent protests following the funeral of a black man who died after he was injured in police custody. 

The riots broke out just a few blocks from the site of the funeral of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in northwest Baltimore and then spread through other parts of the city in the most violent demonstrations since looting in Ferguson, Missouri, last year. 

Television images showed mobs of rioters jumping on top of a police car, destroying a taxi and setting two other patrol cars on fire after teenaged crowds ignored calls to disperse and clashed with lines of hundreds of police. Gangs had threatened to target police officers, local law enforcement said.

I have been watching this unfold for the last hour or so now, and it is really frustrating to see these young people reinforce everything that the conservatives want Americans to believe about this community.

They have been destroying property, burning police cars, and robbing stores like common thugs. 

From what I am hearing these rioters are quite young, 14, 15, and 16 years old and they are clearly very angry. So angry in fact that they are refusing to listen to more mature voices asking them to stop.

The new book attacking Hillary Clinton is shown to be a fraud: FOX is getting desperate

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/04/26/clinton-cash-collapses-defeated-fox-news-desperate.html

Fox News is desperately trying to create a new Congressional investigation of Hillary Clinton even as Clinton Cash crumbles before their eyes.

I have my computer back and Retriever Towing, Portland, OR Update

My computer is back, so I am not on a 8 year old slug so I can actually get online in regular time.

My computer is working great!!!!  I could not be more pleased.

The towing Situation:

Retriever Towing, Portland shut down their Facebook site this morning.  Seems the Grandma M stupidity (illegal and unwarranted tow) last week and us post on their Facebook page was too much for them to handle.  They had NO positive comments on their Facebook Page actually.

I got a letter saying they are not Predatory and they then they defined Predatory Towing.  I have had the opportunity to talk to people who also defined Predatory Towing as: 1.  Going into places WITHOUT AN ACTIVE CONTRACT and towing.  (Retriever Towing seems to be going in to places where they had towing contracts previously and towing when people are taking in Groceries, kids and such. Which as the case in the Grandma M situation.)

They sent a form saying they would send pictures if Grandma M would hold them harmless.  I shot back they have permission from the form given to them last week.  I also said Grandma M would consider signing the form with the Hold Harmless part crossed out.

I am waiting for the response.  Basically, I am looking at 3 weeks of getting the law, reading it and finding other cases.

AGGRAVATION FEE:  Evidently (2 sources) This Tow company will add additional aggravation fees if you upset someone in the Tow Office.  The fine can be more than the Tow Fee I am told.  I also have reason to suspect that they tried to throw on an aggravation fee after Grandma M got the car back.  IT WAS TURNED DOWN.

I have a question to them about is there such a thing as an aggravation fee and what triggers it?

I don't think I am making any friends at Retriever Towing in Portland, OR.

Have a good day.  I will be updating regularly.

Republicans DO NOT have the votes need to stop the Iran Deal: PEOPLE WANT NEGOTIATIONS!!

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/04/27/obama-wins-john-boehner-admits-republicans-votes-stop-iran-deal.html

Speaker of the House John Boehner is privately admitting that Republicans don’t have the votes to stop President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.

Bloomberg View reported:

The top-ranking Republican in Congress privately acknowledged this weekend that his party doesn’t have enough votes to overcome a veto of any resolution disapproving the nuclear-weapons deal President Barack Obama hopes to reach with Iran.

Speaking at an off-the-record event Saturday at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s meeting in Las Vegas, House Speaker John Boehner told the audience that he didn’t expect that more than two-thirds of Congress would vote to overturn a veto from Obama if Congress voted against a nuclear deal, according to four people who were inside the room for the private talk.

President Obama takes down Cheney and the Koch Brothers at the Dinner Last Night. Amazing stuff

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/04/25/183992.html

President Obama came out swinging and pulled no punches while taking out Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, and devoted an entire segment to the Koch Brothers during his White House Correspondents’ Dinner remarks.

My computer died last week and I am on a old, slow computer: Not many posts until I get my computer back.

My Apple PowerBook died again last week.  I got a call yesterday saying it is fixed.  It was a cord which goes to the hard drive and it was replaced.  I will pick it up when I get back to Portland, OR tomorrow.

Car Tow Update:  We have plans for 3 weeks and we have media interested in the story.  I will focus on the tow incident next week to find out the law.  I believe they are required to provide pictures.  I am also asking for a written explanation of the tow and a copy of the laws which allowed for the tow and a copy of the contract with the apartment complex.  (I know they DO NOT have a contract with the Tow Company.)

We are heading out to the Seattle  Mariners Baseball Game in Seattle today.  20 family members are going to be there I am told.  I hope we have sun.

President Obama Shreds FOX at the correspondents Dinner Last Night

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/04/25/obama-luther-anger-translator-shred-fox-news-white-house-correspondents-dinner.html

President Obama brought down the house at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner by bringing out Luther, his anger translator who took a big shot right off the bat at Fox News.

Video:

Obama said, “Because, despite our differences, we count on the press to shed light on the most important issues of the day.”

Luther’s translation was, “And we can count on Fox News to terrify old white people with some nonsense. Sharia Law is coming to Cleveland. Run for the damn hills. That was ridiculous.”

I had the police called on me yesterday by Retriever Towing in Portland, OR.

The ongoing saga of the towed Honda Civic.

I got 1 email from from Retriever Towing and then nothing.  I took a letter into the dispatch office to request:  Pictures of the infraction, written statement of why the car was towed, contract with the apartment (they don't have one) and a copy of the law.

I was filming as I gave them the letter.

They said stop filming and I did not.  They called the police.

I waited and had a good conversation with the police  I learned a lot which is very helpful as we proceed forward.  I have gotten no information from Retriever towing.

This morning I got an email from Retriever saying:  You like to talk to the police?

I replied Yes, it was very helpful


I then asked for the pictures and feel they are in violation of the law by not sending pictures.

I also said I am fine with talking to the licensing bureau and to those who made the laws.

I am going to read the law and find out if Retriever Towing is following the law.  If they are not following the law, i will point that out.  There may need to be a change of laws.

3 TV Stations have shown an interest in the story.  A grandma parks her car and goes to get 2 Grandkids ready for tumbling class.  She and the kids come out to a car gone.

Gov Scott Walkers Dismal Record shows the failures of GOP Governors

ww.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/scott-walkers-dismal-record-lets-look-what-gop-candidates-failed-do-governors?akid=13032.294211.yraI31&rd=1&src=newsletter1035305&t=5

Scott Walker's Dismal Record: Let's Look at What GOP Candidates Failed to Do as Governors

They were supposed to show off the GOP's deep bench. Instead, they highlighted incompetence.


What do Scott Walker, Chris Christie and Bobby Jindal all have in common? They’re all sitting governors who’d like to be president, sure. But what else?

How about being embarrassingly bad at job creation? That’s right. FromJanuary 2011 through January 2015, Louisiana under Jindal ranked 32nd in job creation with 5.4 percent growth over four years. Wisconsin under Walker ranked 35th, with 4.85 percent growth. New Jersey under Christie ranked 40th, with 4.15 percent growth. This compares with a national average of 8.21 percent.

President Obama's polling is improving with each month more confidence in the economy

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2015/04/president-obamas-approval-ratings-going.html

A comparison of past President's approval rating during their seventh year in office.

Courtesy of CNN:  

President Barack Obama's approval rating is shifting back toward positive territory, as the public's take on the economy hits a new high mark for Obama's tenure, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. 

For the first time since May of 2013, more Americans polled say they have a positive impression of how Obama is handling the presidency than a negative one: 48% approve of the way Obama is handling his job, while 47% disapprove. 

While the share saying they approve is not significantly larger than the share disapproving, it's a notable shift in perceptions of Obama's presidency. 

Obama's numbers are on the rise at the same time the public gives the economy the highest ratings of his presidency. 

The poll finds 52% describe the U.S. economy as very or somewhat good, while 48% call it very or somewhat poor. That marks the first time since Obama took office that significantly more people describe the economy as "good" than "poor," and only the second time since then that a majority has described the nation's economy as "good." 

The last time significantly more Americans called the economy "good" than "poor" in CNN/ORC polling was September 2007.

Retriever Towing in Portland, OR is a PREDATORY TOWING COMPANY! Today they unlawfully towed a Honda Civic and charged $357.00 to get it back.

Retriever Towing in Portland, Oregon is a Predatory Towing company and they towed a Honda Civic as the owner was in an apartment picking up her
grandkids. She was getting the kids ready for tumbling class and got out to find the car missing. The maintenance folks said they saw Retriever Towing around last week so call them. (The Apartment DOES NOT have a contract with Retriever and was told to leave the Apartment last week.) Retriever was called and they did tow (steal) the Honda Civic. Retriever had no right to take that car and have refused to show pictures of any infractions, or give a written explanation of any infractions AND THEY REFUSE TO SHOW US THE LAW WHICH ALLOWS THEM TO TOW (STEAL) CARS from innocent people taking their grandkids to a class.

RETRIEVER TOWING of Portland, OR is being asked to provide:
1. Written Reason for the Towing of the Honda Civic 2. Pictures of any infractions which was reason for the tow. 3. Name of the person who authorized the tow. 4. Copy of the law which gives them the authority to tow. 5. Copy of the Contract with the Apartment which gave them the authority to tow (steal) the Honda Civic at Sunnyside on 4/23/2015. I will go to the office tomorrow to see if they will provide the above 5 items. I got an email saying NO, they will not provide them. They hung up on me after being quite rude to me on the phone. I have gotten 1 email from Charles White at Retriever Towing saying that I am arrogant.

Wall Street Cheats: Teachers Cheat: Which ONE GROUP goes to prison? (Not Wall Street) Jon Stewart

http://www.alternet.org/media/jon-stewart-difference-between-atlanta-cheating-and-wall-street-scandals-who-got-punished

Jon Stewart compared the “eerie” similarities between the Atlanta teacher cheating scandal with fraud on Wall Street, and discovered that the only difference between the two seems to be who was actually punished. (Spoiler alert: It was the teachers.)
On last night’s Daily Show segment, Stewart looked at the basics of both cases to see where they overlapped and diverged. The similarities were endless: widespread lying for personal gain, a culture of secrecy and intimidation, and a refusal to admit to wrongdoing. But the stories had very different endings: teachers and administrators involved in the Atlanta scandal will actually be doing hard time, with some were sentenced to years in prison. While the Wall Streeters “whose financial crimes nearly broke the Earth” escaped wholly unscathed, with the exception of one conviction.

Old Geezer GOP could care less about Global Warming impact - New Study

http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2015/04/old-geezer-gop-could-not-care-less-if-planet-melts-new-survey/

A Gallup survey released yesterday shows that, other than conservative Republicans, most Americans thinks they will experience (or are already experiencing) global warming in their lifetime.
Only 37 percent of Republican respondents believed that “the effects of global warming will happen in this lifetime,” and 40 percent said “global warming will never happen. This is significantly higher than the percentages of moderate/liberal Republicans (16%), non-leaning independents (14%), conservative/moderate Democrat (5%) and liberal Democrats (3%) who say the same.”

DO NOT DRINK THE WATER: North Carolina told not to drink the water because of contamination (for years, but just told.)

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/23/3649984/coal-ash-update-dukeville/

Fears Of Contamination Confirmed, North Carolina Residents Warned Not To Drink Their Water

Why did it take so long?  They were drinking unsafe water.

 

Sherry Gobble has been wary of drinking the tap water in her neighborhood for more than a year.

“I feel like I’ve become very suspicious of all water,” she told ThinkProgress in November. “When I go to a friend’s house, and they offer coffee or tea, I don’t drink it because I don’t know where it came from.”
On Monday, her fears were confirmed. Nineteen households and a church in her community of Dukeville, North Carolina were sent letters by the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) warning them not to drink or cook with well water due to elevated levels of toxic heavy metals, the Associated Press reported. Like Gobble’s home, each is located within a quarter mile of a coal ash pond owned by Duke Energy.

 

Parent lose daughter in Mass Shooting - They now owe $220,000.oo to suppliers of guns in shooting

http://blog.thomsonreuters.com/index.php/parents-lost-daughter-mass-shooter-now-owe-220000-suppliers/

Parents lost daughter to mass shooter, now owe $220,000 to his suppliers

From Westlaw Journal Computer & Internet: The mother and stepfather of a 24-year-old woman killed in a Colorado movie theater mass shooting not only can’t sue the websites where gunman James Holmes bought his ammunition and equipment, but now they may owe two of the businesses more than $220,000 in legal costs.

21 Apr 2015Melissa Sachs

Senior U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch of the District of Colorado dismissed Sandy and Lonnie Phillips’ suit against four websites because Colorado and federal laws shield firearms and ammunition sellers from liability based on a customer’s wrongful acts.  Phillips et al. v. Lucky Gunner LLC et al., No. 14–cv–02822, 2015 WL 1499382 (D. Colo. Mar. 27, 2015).

Son of Medical Marijuana mom taken by state after he give speech about benefits of MM.

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/outrage-kansas-medical-marijuana-mom-son-seized-classroom-comments?akid=13030.294211.XyPLpc&rd=1&src=newsletter1035255&t=9

A mother already suffering from a debilitating medical condition now must fight the state of Kansas to  maintain her parental rights.
Shona Banda, a well-known activist, published a book “Live Free or Die” detailing how she found relief from Crohn’s disease after using cannabis oil. Banda’s primary concern now is keeping custody of her son. This because her son’s school contacted child protective services after he attempted to argue about the harms of marijuana during a classroom talk. Child Protective Services then removed Banda’s son from the school.

4 Ways lawmakers grovel to the Christian Right even when Right Wing Religion is in decline

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/4-ways-lawmakers-still-grovel-christian-right-even-right-wing-religion-declines?akid=13030.294211.XyPLpc&rd=1&src=newsletter1035255&t=3

The proportion of conservative Christians is declining in the U.S., yet right-wing lawmakers are flipping out. Legislatures everywhere are passing religious-minded bills likely to be struck down after costly legal battles, merely to prove their allegiance to the Christian right. From Bibles to vouchers to school prayer, here’s how they’re signaling their religious stripes, even as the electorate scurries away.
1. The Ten Commandments  The wars about displaying the Ten Commandments are continuing.

2. Prayer
As Kentucky’s attempt to get the Bible into classrooms demonstrated, schools often become the arena for religious pandering. And there’s no pandering like school prayer, which is perfectly constitutional as long as the state doesn’t endorse it — which, of course, is exactly what legislators want.

3. Vouchers
Another backend way to intertwine religion and schooling is to reverse the process: rather than force religion onto students, export students into religion. That’s been the path of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who’s overseen a massive voucher program, essentially privatizing—and pietizing—his state’s education system.
4. Religious Freedom Bills
Thanks to the unexpected pushback against Indiana’s so-called religious freedom bill last month, which caught everybody, especially Indiana Governor Mike Pence, by surprise, religious freedom restoration acts are now the subject of public scrutiny.

Colbert on Earth Day and Republicans: R's say: 'We don't know what the Fu## we are talking about.'

http://bluenationreview.com/colbert-climate-change-deniers-message-dont-know-fck-talking/

Colbert calls out Climate Deniers.  Very Good.

More and more Pipelines but No real oversight.

http://america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2015/4/21/gas-and-oil-pipelines-regulated-by-absentee-agency.html?utm_content=main&utm_campaign=ajam&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow

Who watches the nation’s vast and rapidly expanding network of gas and oil pipelines? Pretty much no one, it seems.
OK, that is not exactly true. The United States has the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which is nominally the regulatory body for interstate pipelines, but according to a story published today in Politico, the name might sound willing, but the body is weak.
“There is nowhere today the sense that the Office of Pipeline Safety is in charge,” remarked then-NTSB Chairman Jim Hall about a 1999 accident, and, as Politico tells it, that is still the story today.

Gun Violence Cost for each state

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/how-much-money-does-gun-violence-cost-in-your-state

How Much Money Does Gun Violence Cost in Your State?

Here's who pays the most for America's $229 billion a year in gun carnage.

State	Per Capita	Total Estimated Cost	Population
WY	$1,397	$805,592,000	576,626
LA	$1,333	$6,133,740,000	4,602,134
AK	$1,287	$939,758,000	730,307
AL	$1,034	$4,978,930,000	4,817,528
OK	$996	$3,801,289,000	3,815,780
MS	$995	$2,972,334,000	2,986,450
TN	$990	$6,393,431,000	6,454,914
MO	$980	$5,902,364,000	6,024,522
SC	$938	$4,432,008,000	4,723,417

 

Bernie Sanders shreds the Republican Budget

http://www.occupydemocrats.com/watch-bernie-sanders-epically-shreds-the-immoral-republican-budget/

In this video from today’s Senate hearing, a passionate Bernie Sanders unloads both barrels on the immoral Republican budget, listing the many ways that it does “exactly the opposite” of what the American people think needs to be done to rebuild the American middle class.
Senator Sanders breaks down the proposed Republican budget and details each area of policy where the cavalier funding-slashing that the Republicans are so fond of only piles on to the burdens that the average American must carry. From healthcare to student loans to food assistance to the drive to abolish the estate tax, the cutting of tax credits for working families, the financial impact on the middle class is astonishing and the benefits to the billionaire class even more so.
It really is difficult to understand why it’s so hard for us to make progress, especially in the most basic areas of human need: “The least we can do as a nation, in a nation that has more income and wealth inequality than any other major country, a nation in which the wealthiest people are becoming phenomenally richer, while we have forty million people living in poverty, the least we can do is make sure nobody goes hungry.”

John Oliver: CNN has an END OF THE WORLD VIDEO

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/john-oliver-this-is-probably-the-video-youll-want-to-watch-if-the-world-is-ending/

n a brief segment for Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver premiered a sign-off video in anticipation of the end of the world — for whenever that may occur.
The host noted that CNN created a video years ago that it has held in reserve for Earth’s demise, with a note cautioning: “Hold for release until end of the world confirmed.”

15,000 dollar dividend for every family in the US - A new proposal

http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/another-fight-for-15-a-15-000-dividend-for-every-american-family

Every American deserves a share of our country's co-owned wealth. While the Kochs and the Waltons may not be lining up to collect their checks, most families will, and they will benefit immensely, as will the economy in an inevitable surge of consumer spending. It's not redistribution or a handout, because each family will be reimbursed for the use of its share of the air and the land and the water, and for 70 years of labor and taxes.
Americans want to work, but available jobs don't provide a living wage. Almost three-quarters of people receiving public assistance are members of working families.
As a result of their low pay, almost two-thirds of Americans would be unable to cover a $1,000 emergency room visit with funds from their bank accounts. A national dividend would help to fix that. There are several powerful reasons why this should happen.

Truthout and BuzzFlash combat the corporate takeover of everything by bringing you trustworthy, independent news. Join our mission by making a tax-deductible donation now!

Reason 1: Our Tax Money Has Been Used to Eliminate Our Jobs
The process is insidious, quietly executed, still evolving after 60 years, deadly to America's middle class. The immeasurable benefits of doing business in our productive nation have led to innovations that demand less of workers, but without compensation for their years of labor and taxes. In fact, corporations have reduced their payment for our many resources. Yet they continue to take from the taxpayers.

6 ways Progressive Democrats are setting the agenda in Congress

http://www.alternet.org/activism/6-surprising-ways-progressives-are-actually-kicking-butt-congress?akid=13023.294211.CjyBZQ&rd=1&src=newsletter1035128&t=3

1. Social Security: Progressives have been arguing for several years that the country's primary program for the elderly, disabled and survivors needs to be expanded, not cut back.
2. Financial reform: In January, the House Democrartic leadership took a swipe at Wall Street with a proposal for a financial transactions tax, a step progressives have long advocated to rein in the financial sector's manic trading culture. 
3. Jobs and wages: For the last five years, the CPC has introduced a People's Budget as an ideological counterweight to the draconian budget cuts and tax giveaways in the Republican leadership's proposals.

Quick Video: It shows why you will continue to slide backward economically

http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2015/04/quick-video-shows-why-you-will-continue-to-slide-backward-economically/

If you were to take a street poll, just walk around and ask people you come across, about how they feel about the economy, many would tell you that they still feel like they like the economy is in a recession. Here’s why.
Throughout a large portion of America’s financial history, economic gains were distributed more heavily among the bottom 90 percent of the population. That was until the 1980’s.
Something changed in the 1980’s (Reagan). Policy started its shift to benefiting the top earners and marginalizing the common worker. Since then, the majority of economic gains have gone to the top 10% of earners.
Watch this video that explains why so many Americans feel that the country is still in a recession.

Alzeimers Breakthrough treatment: Fully restores memory function

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/04/20/this-new-breakthough-alzheimers-treatment-fully-restores-memory-function/

A team of Australian researchers are using a non-invasive ultrasound technology to assist in removing toxic plaque and lesions from nerve cells commonly associated with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.  

If you are one of the many millions of people who have witnessed the degenerative effects of Alzheimer’s disease, then you likely know how heartbreaking it is to see a loved one’s quality of life dissipate in what seems like an instant.

For years, scientists have worked diligently to find a counteractive treatment for the common neuro-degenerative disease, but mostly with no successful avail. Thankfully, however, this might all be about to change.

A team of researchers from the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at the University of Queensland have found success in reversing the processes that are commonly associated with the onset of Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related diseases. Their findings were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

From what we currently understand, a person’s Alzheimer’s disease is usually the result of a build-up of two types of lesions – amyloid plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles. Amyloid plaques sit between the neurons and end up as dense clusters of beta-amyloid molecules, a sticky type of protein that clumps together and forms plaques.

Neurofibrillary tangles are found inside the neurons of the brain, and they’re caused by defective tau proteins that clump up into a thick, insoluble mass. This causes tiny filaments called microtubules to get all twisted, which disrupts the transportation of essential materials such as nutrients and organelles along them, sort of like when you twist up the vacuum cleaner tube.

Toni Morrison talks about Race and Police - Great stuff

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/toni-morrison-lets-loose-race-america-i-want-see-white-man-convicted-raping-black

“People keep saying, ‘We need to have a conversation about race’,” Morrison told the Daily Telegraph.
“This is the conversation. I want to see a cop shoot a white unarmed teenager in the back.”
She added: “And I want to see a white man convicted for raping a black woman. Then when you ask me, ‘Is it over?’, I will say yes.”
Since the fatal police shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August last year, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets around America, demanding criminal justice reform under the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement.
High-profile fatal police shootings of African American boys and men, including 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland last November and 51-year-old Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, earlier this month, have continued throughout the year.

Paul Krugman dismantles crazy conservative economics

http://www.alternet.org/economy/paul-krugman-dismantles-crazy-conservative-economics

What will it take for right-wing ideologues to abandon the austerity myth?

Europe has taken leave of its senses—or its economic leaders have. That, in a nutshell, is the case that Paul Krugman makes in his column Friday. America's economy may be making a stumbling, long overdue recovery, but the eurozone remains in deep doldrums, a crisis that Krugman compares to the 1930s.

A sort of mass hysteria has taken hold in Europe. No matter how much evidence piles up that slashing budgets and government spending is exactly the wrong way to go about creating confidence, economic leaders keep espousing austerity.

The problem does not lie with fundamental economic models, Krugman explains:

It’s true that few economists predicted the crisis. The clean little secret of economics since then, however, is that basic textbook models, reflecting an approach to recessions and recoveries that would have seemed familiar to students half a century ago, have performed very well. The trouble is that policy makers in Europe decided to reject those basic models in favor of alternative approaches that were innovative, exciting and completely wrong.

Video breaks down the cost of Gun Violence in 90 seconds. It is Sickening

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/04/19/video-breaks-down-annual-cost-of-u-s-gun-violence-in-90-seconds-and-its-sickening-videos/

Everyone always says you can’t put a monetary value on life, and that’s true – but you can put one on the costs involved in taking one, and they’re staggering.
According to a video Mother Jones put out April 15 titled, “What Does Gun Violence In America Really Cost?” that figure reaches approximately as high as $229 BILLION a year. To put that into perspective for you, that’s $55 billion more than the worldwide revenue collected by Apple in 2012, which totaled $174 billion. It’s $5 billion more than the $224 billion the United States spends on obesity annually, as well.
Think for a moment about how big the dieting market is to understand just how much we spend on gun violence every year. It approaches the $251 billion we spend on Medicaid and the $289 billion we spend annually on smoking.

Marco Rubio melts down on Meet The Press about Climate Change, bigotry and Science

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/04/19/marco-rubio-melts-puddle-science-denying-bigotry-cbss-face-nation.html

Rubio went from touting himself as the fresh young Republican leader for a new century to expressing your senior citizen Fox News watching neighbor’s views on gay marriage and climate change. As soon as Rubio left behind his campaign slogans, what was revealed was more of the same.

Marco Rubio’s young and fresh campaign can’t hide the musty smell of its old and unpopular Republican ideas.

In a matter of a few minutes, Sen. Marco Rubio went from touting his young and fresh ideas to melting into a pile science denying, warmongering, bigotry on CBS’s Face The Nation.

Transcript via Face The Nation:

SCHIEFFER: When we sat down with Marco Rubio at the Manchester Community College, he had choice words on Hillary Clinton, said, flatly, we may have to go to war with the Iranians to stop them from building a nuclear weapon. And he talked candidly about deciding to run against his friend and mentor Jeb Bush.

We started with a simple question. Why do you want to be president?

RUBIO: I believe the country is living a historic moment. It’s transitioning into this post-industrial era, an era of extraordinary opportunity.

Our ideas are now allowing our nation to fulfill its potential in this new century. I believe I have the ideas for the country. I believe I have the vision for the country. I believe I am positioned to help lead this country to this new American century.

Here’s Rubio on climate change, “I believe climate is changing because there’s never been a moment where the climate is not changing. The question is, what percentage of that or what is due to human activity? If we do the things they want us to do, cap and trade, you name it, how much will that change the pace of climates change vs. how much will it cost to our economy? Scientists can’t tell us what impact it would have on reversing these changes. But I can tell you with certainty it would have a devastating impact on our economy.”

Later, Sen. Rubio talked about same-sex marriage, “Well, first, it’s not that I’m against gay marriage. I believe the definition of the institution of marriage should be between one man and one woman….And I don’t believe same-sex marriage is a constitutional right.”

Sen. Rubio also told Bob Schieffer that war with Iran is on the table, “If you cross this threshold, you will face military action on the part of the United States. We don’t want that to happen. But the risk of a nuclear Iran is so great that that option must be on the table.”

Rubio’s fresh new Republican ideas for the 21st Century involve discriminating against gays, denying the science behind climate change and war with Iran. The self-described young and fresh Republican is carrying around the same old and tired Republican ideas.

13 Ways Republicans have declared WAR on the Middle Class and Poor

http://samuel-warde.com/2015/04/republicans-declare-war-on-average-americans/

13 Ways Republicans Have Declared War On Average Americans : So Why Do People Vote For Them?

Here are the lucky unlucky thirteen reasons why Republican members of both houses of congress have declared a war on the middle class and the have-nots while the average Americans’ living standards slip further down the ladder rungs.

1. Bleed domestic programs to death.
2. Who needs new or better jobs?
3. Who needs a good education?
4. Who needs health care anyway?
5. Next on the chopping block: Social Security.
6. Privatize Medicare, health care for seniors.
7. Kick 7 Million Poor People Off Medicaid.
8. Our century’s version of “Let Them Eat Cake.”
9. But give the Pentagon more blank checks.
10. And use the excuse of endless war to do it.
11. Corporate taxes are still too high, right?
12. And the rich can’t afford to pay, either.
13. But working class and poor must pay more.

The Republican’s budget proposals would undeniably make life much harder for millions of average Americans. So I’ll ask again; why do people keep voting for them?

 

Anxiety remedies: 15 Natural Remedies for Anxiety

http://truththeory.com/2015/04/02/the-15-most-effective-natural-remedies-for-anxiety/

Herbal therapies are astoundingly popular among and their interest is growing as the dangers of pharmaceuticals become widely known and accepted. In 2008 statistician Patricia M. Barnes of the National Center for Health Statistics and her colleagues reported that almost 20 percent of children and adults in the U.S. had used an herbal medicine during the past year. That percentage according to some experts has doubled. A team led by physician David M. Eisenberg of Harvard Medical School determined that use of herbs for physical and mental problems including anxiety had risen 380 percent in seven years.
The use of plants as treatments dates to at least 3000 b.c. although some theories propose humans have been using plants has medicine for as long as we’ve existed. Today this practice is part of a broader movement that has been fueled by the high ineffectiveness of prescription drugs, their side effects and the fact that these drugs do not work for everyone. Natural remedies come with little to no risk and if you find the right one for your condition, you can use it for life. That being said, always consult with a Naturopathic Doctor before initiating any herbal treatments for diagnosed conditions, especially if you are already taking medication.

1. Cannabis
2. Valerian
3. Honey
4. Lemon Balm
5. Passionflower   

Funny Video: 56% of Congress are Climate Deniers - They get called out for Climate Change Denial Disorder.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/04/18/climate-change-denial-disorder-video/

“Does your parent, grandparent, or political representative suffer from Climate Change Denial Disorder?” A hilarious Funny or Die spoof ad leads in with that question, then explains:

“CCCD [Climate Change Denial Disorder] is a rapidly spreading disease that world health officials say, if left untreated, could destroy the entire planet.”

The camera cuts to a climate change denying man in a rowboat and full fishing regalia, who declares, “there’s nothing more relaxing than being out on the water.” The camera then pans out to reveal that the man — who looks suspiciously like the actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. — and his rowboat aren’t “on the water” at all, but rather on an asphalt parking lot. Apparently, the water has dried up.

Domestic Terrorist Timothy McVeigh's anti-government philosophy now the Republican Platform

http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2015/04/domestic-terrorist-timothy-mcveighs.html

Domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh's anti-government philosophies have now metastasized within the Republican party itself.

Corporate Profits Double Reagan's under Socialist Obama. (How socialist of him.)

http://egbertowillies.com/2013/02/17/corporate-profits-under-socialist-obama-double-reagans-middle-class-under-siege-video/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=EgbertoWillies.com&utm_content=Corporate%20Profits%20Under%20%27Socialist%27%20Obama%20Double%20Reagan%27s%20-%20Minimum%20Wage%20Stagnant%20%28VIDEO%29

The middle class remains under siege as we continue the corporate pilfering of America. Yet the big news promoted by the mainstream media is the resignation of a pope, a disabled carnival cruise liner, the McCarthy like behavior of Senators denying a qualified veteran timely confirmation, and other frivolities. None of these stories are of immediate material value to the middle class. Yet, they were the biggest stories of the week in an economy not working for the middle class sans the President’s State of The Union address that broke down into the ineptitude of a rebuttal speech; a speech that was nothing more than a rehash of rejected policies and values and a Twitter/Facebook deflecting moment.

Today America wakes up to a very depressing news story to 99% of Americans.

Bloomberg

U.S. corporations’ after-tax profits have grown by 171 percent under Obama, more than under any president since World War II, and are now at their highest level relative to the size of the economy since the government began keeping records in 1947, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Profits are more than twice as high as their peak during President Ronald Reagan’s administration and more than 50 percent greater than during the late-1990s Internet boom, measured by the size of the economy.

Elizabeth Warren to GOP: We know what you are up to and we ARE READY TO FIGHT.

http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2015/03/elizabeth-warren-to-the-gop-we-know-what-youre-up-to-and-were-ready-to-fight/

Earlier today, Sen. Elizabeth Warren spoke about the upcoming vote on the abysmal GOP budget proposal.
“A budget resolution is a statement of values,” Sen. Warren said, “and the Republicans have put their values on display with this resolution.”
“It was just a few years ago, 2008, that there was a major financial crisis in this country. People lost their jobs; people lost their homes; people lost their savings,” continued Warren. “And yet, the Republicans seem to have forgotten all that.”
The GOP’s budget guts financial regulations that were put in place after the financial meltdown — the worst since the Great Depression.
“A big part of that is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [CFPB],” said Warren. “After the crisis, people like Sen. [Al] Franken (D-MN) and Sen. [Jeff] Merkley (D-OR) were talking about the importance of getting a single agency that would be there to help level the playing field.”
“The idea was that we would develop a single agency and make that agency responsible for standing up for American families against the biggest banks in this country — make that agency responsible and accountable to the American people. And that’s exactly what we did.”
So far, the CFPB has forced big banks to return more than $5 billion directly to those customers they cheated, and “has scared off a lot of others from doing more cheating,” said Warren.